EXPANDED DETOX A SMALL STEP

Certainly an expanded outpatient detox program in the capital region
is welcome. And progress on addictions should be celebrated as a step
toward helping individuals and reducing the problems plaguing
Victoria's downtown.

But they are such tiny steps in the face of such a huge problem.

Politicians -- and the public -- recognize that addiction to alcohol
and other drugs is at the root of so many of the region's problems.
There's talk of forced treatment and institutionalization and
law-and-order crackdowns.

But the reality is that a person desperate to get addiction treatment
is most often sent away with no real help, told to keep calling back
to see if there is space in a treatment program. Teens struggling
with a drug habit can generally find support in a brief detox
program, but are then put on a waiting list for treatment. Many
return to drug use; the opportunity is lost.

The Vancouver Island Health Authority announced this week that it
will expand an outpatient detox program. Participants attend two-hour
meetings each day, where they are helped to manage their withdrawal
symptoms and connected with services.

It is a good start, particularly for people with relatively stable
lives. But it is not treatment. And it is of little use to entrenched
and homeless addicts, who are unlikely to remain clean if they return
to the streets each day.

Those people compete for space in the region's seven detox beds.
Seven beds, for an addicted population of more than 1,000.

Another 15 detox beds are to open Feb. 15. Again, welcome. But
without more treatment spaces people will still not get the help they need.

Certainly, detox and treatment and continuing support cost money.

But so does our failure to provide those services. Ask any downtown
business or resident coping with the street problems driven by
addiction, police officer struggling to control the resulting crime
or emergency room nurse who sees the sick and injured addicts. Ask
any family fighting to get treatment for an addicted child.

Any progress is welcome. But these are tiny steps. We need great
strides from our health-care system to deal with this epidemic.